The Communist Party has given another signal that it may be willing to ease its iron grip on China’s financial system, announcing that it will quadruple the amount of foreign investment allowed to flow into the country.

As its leaders meet to carry out a power handover that has left any real reform on the backburner for months, the raising of the quotas for yuan/renminbi investment has been hailed as a positive step in Beijing’s cautious move to ease its draconian control over financial markets.

Guo Shuqing, the reform-minded head of the securities regulator, said that the amount of money